Hello everyone,
In this devlog, I’ll introduce you to the two playable characters and how they differ from each other.

Katsuo

Originally, Katsuo was the only playable character in the game because my first idea was to make a shoot’em up that uses the Playdate's crank (see the first devlog for the initial concept). The d-pad allows you to move around and the crank controls the robot’s hands.

Katsuo’s gameplay is inspired by judo and requires you to grab enemies. When you hold one, you can attack by smashing it into another enemy or throwing it at others, like in a bowling game.

Moving the crank faster makes the throw faster as well and can cause chain reactions. It is a good way to make combos and get a better score.

When holding an enemy, you can also defend yourself from bullets with it.

You can grab any enemy, except bosses.

Making the distinction between a crank movement to protect yourself and a crank movement to throw an enemy was trickier than I imagined. When the player turns the crank, the game records the speed of the movement. If it exceeds a certain speed and then stops, Katsuo throws the enemy. The speed threshold was hard to choose. During my first playtests, I often got frustrated because Katsuo threw an enemy too early or too late. I think I found a good compromise but I’ll need to do more playtesting to make sure that the threshold is right

Saki

When I received the console, I realized that it was more uncomfortable than I expected to play with both the d-pad and the crank at the same time. So, to make the game more accessible, I wanted to add a character that uses buttons.

Saki is a karateka who fights only with her fists. She can’t defend herself but she moves slightly faster than Katsuo (the first kanji from her name means “fast”).

When an enemy is hit by a punch, the direction in which it is sent flying depends on the angle between the fist and the enemy, like in a snooker game.

She can also charge her punches to do more damage (useful against tougher enemies).

Saki’s style is a bit more risky than Katsuo’s but it is also less random. I wonder if she will be preferred by high-level players. The character used will be displayed in the leaderboard to show which one is favored by the players.

That’s all for this devlog. I hope you enjoyed learning more about Kuroobi’s gameplay. Thanks for reading!